One brave act can inspire someone to step back from the ledge and try again | Ep 337

One brave act can inspire someone to step back from the ledge and try again | Ep 337

Courage doesn’t always look like a polished speech or a perfect plan; sometimes it’s a shaky voice, a high platform, and a song that isn’t in your range—sung anyway to prove that trying matters. We open our hearts to the story of Elliston Berry and her family, honoring her as our 2024 Voice of the Year and reflecting on how their painful experience helped catalyze the Take It Down Act into federal law. Recognition from TIME’s top 100 AI voices can’t erase what happened, but it does spotlight a truth we live by: when people speak up, systems can change.

From there, we get honest about the behind-the-scenes work that few see. Building meaningful projects means wrestling with impatience, managing privacy, and protecting ideas until they’re ready. As a team—and as a host living with ADHD, anxiety, and major depression—we talk about the mental load of slow progress and the discipline of showing up every day. There’s a reason we keep experimenting with unconventional segments, including a cappella performances and that scissor lift guitar set. It’s not theater; it’s a living lesson in stepping into fear and giving others permission to try, even when the odds of awkwardness are high.

We also share the practical pathways for staying connected: five titles through Voices for Voices Publishing, a thriving Mythical Creatures Around the World community on Facebook, and active channels on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, X, and more. Across nearly 90 countries and close to 900 cities, this growing network is where stories meet resources and where a single moment of resonance can make someone pause and choose differently. If one listener steps back from the ledge or sends a text instead of going silent, that is the impact we measure.

Thank you for being part of this journey. If the message moved you, subscribe, download past episodes, and share this conversation with someone who might need it today. Leave a review to help more people find these stories—and tell us: what fear will you face next?

Chapter Markers

0:02 Welcome & Mission Check

2:14 Honoring Elliston Berry

4:24 From Trauma to Federal Law

6:28 Projects, Growth, and Patience

9:03 Mental Health: Managing Impatience

12:27 Privacy, Pace, and Protection

14:22 Gratitude for a Global Community

16:05 Books, Community, and Social Channels

18:03 Why the A Cappella Segments Exist

21:15 Facing Fears on a Scissor Lift

24:08 Imperfect Action as Inspiration

27:05 Laugh, Learn, Keep Going

30:45 Closing Thanks and Blessings

#Inspiration #Bravery #MentalHealthAwareness #Resilience #Hope #MotivationMonday #CourageToChange #TakeTheLeap #SupportEachOther #PositiveVibesOnly #StepBackFromTheLedge #ActsOfKindness #FindingStrengthWithin #EncouragementMatters #YouAreNotAlone #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #factoverfictionmatters #transparency #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices337

Chapters

• 0:02 Welcome & Mission Check
• 2:14 Honoring Elliston Berry
• 4:24 From Trauma to Federal Law
• 6:28 Projects, Growth, and Patience
• 9:03 Mental Health: Managing Impatience
• 12:27 Privacy, Pace, and Protection
• 14:22 Gratitude for a Global Community
• 16:05 Books, Community, and Social Channels
• 18:03 Why the A Cappella Segments Exist
• 21:15 Facing Fears on a Scissor Lift
• 24:08 Imperfect Action as Inspiration
• 27:05 Laugh, Learn, Keep Going
• 30:45 Closing Thanks and Blessings

Transcript

JustinAlanHayesVoicesforVoices: 0:02

Hey everyone, it's Justin and welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast. Again, Justin Alan Hayes, for those that are tuning in for the first time, or maybe it's been a little bit of a while since you joined us last. Just happy for you to be with us, whether you're watching, whether you're listening, whether you're here in the United States, here in the state of Ohio, or uh in a country, territory, province, state, uh, municipality, uh province, I think I mentioned that, uh, across the world. So we welcome each and every one of you. If this is your first episode, or if this is your 300th and I believe we're at 337 episodes that this is. So it's really humbling, uh, making us uh more and more grateful by the day, uh, being able to uh bring this uh this show to you uh with the hopes of helping three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond with uh with Voices for Voices. Um and we encourage you to subscribe to our channels, uh, follow us, uh, download uh all of the episodes that we have uh thus far. 300, this is 337. So there's 336 prior episodes that uh I can almost assure you that uh you'll find uh more than one prior episode that uh may be uh of very much interest uh to you. Uh first off, as we get started, I want to give a uh big congratulations to our uh 2024 Voice of the Year Award winner, the uh the incredible person and family of uh Elliston Berry in uh in the in the Texas uh region of the United States, Texas state of the United States. Uh she was named uh one of the top 100 of the Time magazine's uh top AI voices, uh movers and shakers. And so to get onto that list, it's it's not an easy feat to do. So we want to uh congratulate her, uh her mom, Miss Anna, uh, dad, uh, Mark uh on that achievement and uh hope you enjoyed uh the uh the ceremony and and and the dinner and everything that goes along with that. And it wasn't through uh easy work to get there. So I invite you uh to check out uh that episode. And actually, we have multiple episodes uh with the award presentation, uh, with Elliston and her mom as Anna. Um and and so it's it's just incredible to be able to have uh just truly incredible people who are not only a voice for themselves, but their voice for so many others. Um and then I'll just leave you this this parting thought on on that topic. Uh the Take It Down Act, which is now the Take It Down federal law. Ellison Berry uh had a big, big part in in that as well as uh her her family. Uh so check that out. It's now federal law. You can find out more about that in this very uh very difficult situation, shocking situation um that is now a um again a federal law. And so that's uh it's just incredible. Can't even you know wrap my arms around what that what that that's like. Uh and so that has a lot to do with uh what I just mentioned, one of the one of the top 100 uh voices, individuals from Time magazine in the space of AI artificial intelligence. So it's great to see past guests and and others uh get accolades, even when the topic and topics and the events weren't weren't the the best that you know we want to think that we'd be known for. But it's very much a uh a big lesson in taking a tough situation, never giving up, and wanting to be a voice for not only themselves, but for others. So just excited that that that occurred. We have so many so many great projects. I just get the chills because this is it's just incredible where we are as an organization and the avenues that by the grace of God keep opening up, and not all of them happen overnight, and I think that's one of the areas that is it's hard for I think anybody, but it's hard for me because I'm a very impatient person. Uh again, as soon as we learn different current events, and we have we have guests that are available, we want to get that on and want to get get those shows filmed and out to to you, the world. Uh and so having an understanding that there are projects that never would have fathomed that they would be uh occurring and being a part of voices for voices, and and so it's exciting on one end, and it is uh it is uh a test in patience on the other end, it and so that's something that we're really trying to work through, you know, mental health-wise, is how to balance all that, uh, the excitement of what's to come, what's planned to come, and and then again working with my my patients, which is somebody with you know the ADD, ADHD, anxiety, all those things, and even the the major depression of you know, we can feel down when we're not seeing things today at this very instant, and that's that that can be hard to do, that can be hard to hard to continue, hard to keep a positive outlook, because again, we want that instant gratification of well, I had this idea or somebody on our team's idea, and we want to see that happen ASAP as soon as possible. And we know that's not always that's not always the case where there's a lot of projects, a lot of uh unless untested terrain, but that's mostly for me and the organization, voices for voices, not everybody involved with with these uh these projects. And and and so there is you know the lingo, the words, the definitions, who's involved, how decisions get made in certain in certain areas that I'm not an expert. I don't have experience in. But as I mentioned before, I'm a lifelong learner, and so I think this is one of the ways God is uh letting me know that I still have a lot to learn, and I take solace in that uh, and that I do have a lot to learn, and so you take that with the excitement across the number of number of projects. Uh some we'll be able to get into sooner rather than later. Uh but before you know we would uh we would get into those, uh we uh you know there's the there's privacy, there's uh there's a lot of things that we can't share publicly. Uh and I'll just leave leave it at that, that uh as impatient and as anxious and anxiety and and all that, uh that's also the hard part. So it's the exciting side of things. And then there's the speed in which some projects take. They're longer than uh we'd like. And then that third and that third uh that third pillar is not being able to share everything at the current time, even though I would like to. Um we're just not not in a position to to do that. And anybody who's ever had a project, had something that's you know, their baby, their their thing, uh not that they physically have to have a baby, but it it's it's a project, it's something that you've been working on, and uh there's a lead time to when said project would be completed. And just as your viewers and our listeners are so great and fantastic, uh, we do have some that watch and listen to see what we're doing, to uh again uh potentially take ideas, take take projects. Uh and and so the safety and security of those projects are at the the utmost. And so that's that's saying a lot without saying a lot, yeah. But that's that's where we're at on that. Very, very exciting times, uh, and very impatient times as as well. Uh and I can just say that the fact that we're reaching you where you're at, um in the home and the car, and the bus, and the subway, on the airplane, and in the airport, and the train station, the subway station, wherever you may be, at home, at school, in your dorm, in your apartment, in your condo, at your house or house, wherever. Uh we're just so grateful. And that's how we spend so much time talking about this on other shows as well as this one, uh, because we know how delicate life is. Um, none of us are promised tomorrow, none of us are promised the next minute, the next second. And we don't ever want to lose sight of that, and so we don't we don't want to pass up an opportunity to say thank you all the way up until this point and beyond, but really up until this this point, because we we don't know none of us knows, none of us on earth is got uh so we just have to you know take take things as we take things as we can as we are, and and just share the information that we can share our gratefulness, uh, share again. We have five, so that's one, two, three, four, five. We have five books at the current time under Voices for Voices publishing in the uh the Amazon world, Amazon.com. Some we have uh we have both the electronic and the printed. Some we have one and we're working on the other. And that number five is is going to increase uh posts on the mythical creatures around the world uh Facebook group, over 97,000 followers. Thank you for that. Uh if you're not a part of that that movement, which is interlocked with voices for voices, uh we ask you if you're on Facebook, uh join our join our uh mythical creatures around the world, Facebook group. And then this goes without saying as well. Follow all the voices for voices, media, social media. So that's Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok. Uh I may be missing missing one. But we are uh threads, threads. That was the one I was thinking of. Still could be missing one. Uh but make voices for voices a part of your day, a part of your week, a part of your month. And maybe we can inspire others together. You know, a comment came up at uh it doesn't matter how it came up. Uh so a comment has come up when we do these not say these bonus episodes, but where we do these episodes that we and in in most cases it's myself, you know, we select a song, and then we try to sing a cappella, uh, the the the the lyrics to two particular songs, and it sometimes comments come up and say, Oh, you know, you're trying to be like that person, or you're dressed a certain way, or whatever, whatever those things may be, and that's okay, and we get that, and so I want to just explain the reasoning behind that, and it goes back to our I believe it was our 2023 uh voices for voices, a brand new day event, which is how our organization started, where we bring together all forms of voices, spoken word, sign language, uh music. Uh you name it, we we try to bring all those voices together. And at that particular event, I like music. I say love music. Who doesn't love you know certain songs? Uh and so at that event, number one, I'm afraid of heights, so that means elevation. I get more and more uncomfortable. Uh I can play basic guitar chords, so that just means you know how you hold the strings down and scrum on the guitar. And I am even less of a singer at all. So that's so basically you take all those things, you put it together in about 20 feet above the air on a scissor lift, which you can watch on our YouTube channel, voices for voices. Uh, I think there's like a live show, live performance tab, but you're gonna have to scroll quite a ways down. And so part of that event was me going up on a scissor lift, which again I'm afraid of heights. I guess that's the older I get, but the more conservative of when things like that are going on. I played guitar and I tried to sing, uh, I think it was three songs, maybe four. And I was able to have, you know, the um the fog machines and the spotlight and all those things. And a lot of people say, Oh, yeah, you're you're just trying to you know be somebody and act like you're so important. Uh and it kind of goes hand in hand with some of the comments that we're hearing now when the most recent uh the most recent one was uh a Justin Bieber song, I think, called What Do You Mean? And the comment came up, you know, why are you doing this? And the the reason is actually pretty simple. So I like to think outside the box, and when I did that event and did that 10 minutes or so um at that show 20 feet in the air. Uh it was it was to number one, it was to help me get over a little bit of my being afraid of heights. So there's different messages and names that that's called where you take a situation you've gone through, and it can be very difficult. And one way to try to work through that is to put yourself back into that situation, and so that that was what I did. I can't remember a particular situation where where I turned from not being afraid of heights to being afraid, but that was the first thing. Second thing was to play my guitar or try to play my guitar, and again, this show is live streamed all over the world, just like our TV show and podcast is right now, and so I I put everything out on the line of well, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna help myself hopefully get over some of the some of my fears of heights, of doing things I that were so new to me, having you know the the GoPro uh um uh the GoPro camera. There we go. Uh, and then having uh in-ear monitors, which is like little earbuds that go in, and then and then a microphone, kind of like the uh sometimes you see different artists who uh you know they're playing music and and they move around a lot, and so the microphone is it's tougher for the microphone to move at the same time, and so it'll be kind of like a you know a head-worn microphone, and so there were just a lot of things going on on top of managing the show or the event with the speakers and everything, and and the other musicians. So you take all that, and the reason why I did it, the the cut and dry reason I did it was to hopefully inspire somebody somewhere. Not that I'm a great musician, it's just something I like to do, and so I just said, you know what, why not give it a shot? It wasn't about being perfect because I'm not, nobody is. Uh, it was about hopefully inspiring somebody somewhere watching or listening, whether it was that night during the event as it was happening live, or again, it's still out there today. You can watch and listen and uh check that out, and it's inspire somebody that maybe is hesitant of doing something, like, well, I can't do that because I'm not that great. Well, guess what? I'm not either, and I did it, I tried it. Uh and so maybe it allows you, or another watcher or listener, to try something, to step out of their show a little bit, to be like, you know what, look at him. Like, even if they laugh and chuckled at me, that's fine. Because I don't care how I help people, I don't care how voices for voices, how we help people. What we care about is helping people. So I think outside the box, and so that that event, those 10 minutes or so, those are definitely outside the box. Same thing to the current day as we fast forward here. And with the most recent, you know, Justin Bieber song, or uh an imagined dragon song. The same thing. It was it's to inspire people to maybe step out of their comfort zone, maybe try something, and say, you know what, why not why not just give it a try? What's what's the worst thing to happen? Nothing. And so inspiring is a big piece behind voices for voices. It's not because we're perfect, it's far from that. It's because we're just being regular individuals, regular human beings. We're sharing information, we're sharing events, we're sharing experiences, we're sharing hard topics, and we're making a difference, and so that's why we continue. That's why we're on episode 337. That's why we're gonna continue putting together shows and episodes because there's just one person, just one person over the course of all of our shows, who steps away from that ledge, who changes their thinking from I don't know why I want to go on in life, to you know what, I have a lot to live for, and I'm gonna just I'm gonna give those things or thing, I'm gonna give it a try. So that's what true helping, true inspiring is. But when I do, it helps me because I'm able to share ideas, experiences, events, things that are on my mind, and as somebody who has and is going through, you know, that mental health, mental illness, um continuum every day, there's a lot that I don't know, but I do know what I'm going through. I do know how it to some extent how it how it impacts me. And so it took a lot of swallowing my pride, and I still have to do that. I can't just do it once and then just say, okay, and that's that's it. It's a constant process, it's a constant, constant battle. So we're all in this. If we we laugh at something I say, something uh a song I try to sing, or whatever that may be. I've gotten over that, or I think I have, or at the very least, I know I'm in a better place than I than I have been. So it's so important to just focus on the moment, focus on the second, focus on the minute. As we bring it back, none of us are promised tomorrow, the rest of today, the rest of the hour, the rest of this minute. So for me, spending as much time as I can talking about topics and issues that may inspire you, maybe just a teeny bit. That's a teeny bit further than where you may have been. And as I'm learning different industries, different processes that I'm continuing to learn. For joining us, being with us, watching, listening near and far, coming upon 90 countries across the world that have tuned in at one time or another. Also closing in on 900 total cities across the world. Hopefully, inspiration, different perspectives to you. So, thank you for tuning in on this episode, Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm your host, founder of Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes, and we hope you have a great day. We hope that you join us in celebrating all the voices across the world. And we want to say lastly, God bless you, God bless the United States of America, and God bless the people across the world. We'll see you next time. Thank you so much.